A Commonplace Book

Home | Authors | Titles | Words | Subjects | Random Quote | Advanced Search | About...


Search Help   |   Advanced Search

All the Names 8Saramago 9

 

Moreover, if we persist in stating that we are the ones who make our decisions, then we would have to begin to explain, to discern, to distinguish, who it is in us who made the decision and who subsequently carried it out, immpossible operations by anyone's standards. Strictly speaking we do not make decisions, decisions make us. The proof can be found in the fact that, though life leads us to carry out the most diverse actions one after the other, we do not prelude each one with a period of reflection, evaluation and calculation, and only then declare ourselves able to decide if we will go out to lunch or buy a newspaper or look for the uknown woman.
José Saramago. All the Names c 1997. (translated from the Portuguese by Margaret Jull Costa) San Diego: Harcourt, Inc., 1999. p.29.
permalink